Baptism entry explanation please?

[dentony1]

I have a baptism for October 11, 1810, the child was only 5 days old and it reads in the notes "Privately baptized, received into the Church February 24, 1811.  Mother late Spinster."

The child died in December 1811 and his burial reads "Mother late Mary Browne spinster"

So I checked for the younger siblings and found the 2nd child was christened in 1801 with the same note for the mother.  All are christened with their father's name included and with his surname.

According to an IGI member submission (and yes I know they are not always accurate  ) the parents were married in 1798.  I have checked 3 data bases for Holt, Norfolk but cannot find a marriage but I don't think I am wrong to say the mother and father of this baby were never married but lived a defacto relationship.  I am sure if I ordered the films for the parish I'd not find a marriage in 1798.

Can someone please confirm if I am thinking along the right lines?
Regards
Debra

[diddymiller]

Hi Debra, i think you are right - the parents were not married but obviously as they had several children over time - were in a relationship.

Diddy

[BumbleB]

You don't need to order the films - if you go to Family Search then search England, the Norfolk registers are available to view.  You have to browse them, so it's a bit long-winded, but Holt marriages are there.  Choose the 1754-1806 marriages, and go to image 57 (of 67) -

John Bennett (or possibly Bonnet) of this parish, single man and Mary Browne of the same single woman.  20 November 1798 by Banns.  Both signed.

And you have the opportunity to print the entry 

[trish1120]

The Marriage is also on FreeREG under BUNNET 1798;
John BUNNET/Mary BROWNE, both Single and of Holt Parish at time of Marriage
Witnesses, Wm HADDON/Sarah GOWEN
Bride/Groom both signed their names.

BUNNETT Baptisms, St Andrew, Holt, Norfolk;
SIMON JOHN 25 Feb 1799
SARAH ANN 03 Sept 1801
MARY ANNE 21 May 1804
LUKE JOHN 23 May 1806
JANE ELIZABETH 22 Aug 1808
JOHN 11 Oct 1810
ELIZA 26 Aug 1812
(I didnt search past that date)

All have Father JOHN, Mother Mary BROWNE late Spinster
This implies she was single when marrying John Bunnett and not a Widow.
(confirmed by Marriage entry 1798)

A John BUNNETT was a witness to the Marriage of John GOWEN to Sarah BUNNETT 01 Dec 1796
Its likely that John/Sarah were siblings as Sarah Gowen was a Witness to John/Marys Wedding 1798.

Trish

[trish1120]

Mary Bunnetts Burial 1866 has her age 86 (Birth c 1780)

Possible?

Mary BROWNE Baptised 22 Aug 1779, St Andrew, Holt, to WILLIAM/ELIZABETH
Possible Siblings;
ELIZABETH Brown, 27 July 1775
SARAH Brown, 21 June 1778
MARGARET Brown, 25 Jan 1782
BRIDGET Browne, 31 July 1785 (Birth same day), Mother late LEE, Spinster
CHARLOTTE Browne, 07 Nov 1785, Birth 24 June 1783, Mother late LEE, Spinster

William BROWN, Single of Holt Married Elizabeth LEE, Single of Holt Parish, 04 Oct 1773, St Andrew

Source FreeREG

[dentony1]

Thank you everyone for your help.  I can't understand why I wasn't getting the results when I searched under Browne & Brown.  But they are found now which is great and I also found their eldest child's baptism with the same wrong spelling of Bunnet.

Yes the marriage of Sarah Bunnett to John Gowen is the sister of John and yes the other baptisms belong to him, up to 1812 they all had the entry regarding Mary being a spinster but those who came after didn't have that note, however now I have viewed the baptism entries (thank you for the directions) I can see it was the practice of the Church to privately baptise the children and record the mother's status at time of her marriage.  I've not seen that before.
I've had all these names for several years but no way of confirming them as only source was IGI member on the old data base, I've only just found Free Reg in the past few months so great to have confirmation now.

Whilst I found the baptism image after a bit of jumping around, the data base was Archdeacon records (see below) which had nearly 200 images not 67.
These were my steps but maybe I am selecting the wrong database because I can't find one with just 1754-1806 and from what BumbleB is saying, narrows it down even more to just 67 images.
1.  Browse by location - selected United Kingdom & Ireland
2. Place - narrowed it down to England and got the following for Norfolk:
Archdeacon's transcripts 1600-1812 (where I found the baptism)
Bishops Transcripts 1685-1941, which gave me Norfolk, when I click on that I get Archdeaconry of Norfolk or Archdeaconry of Norwich.  Each is then broken down into years.
Marriage Bonds 1557-1915 (which is alphabetical I think but doesn't start at A)
Parish Records, which is the one you usually search through.

So am I missing a link somewhere.  Mind you knowing now that the images are on-line is going to be very distracting from all things "Life"   

Thank you again
Regards
Debra

[youngtug]

Have sent you a link via PM. Where BumbleB said it was

[BumbleB]

Search = UK and Ireland
England, Norfolk Parish Registers 1538-1900
Select "Browse"
Then select "Holt" from the list of parishes
Marriages
year range

[dentony1]

Thank you, I had the link sent to me by another user and it appears the other day whilst I could get to Holt on the Parish Records data base, it wasn't giving me the individual BDM databases.
So I've bookmarked the page in case that happens again.

kind regards
Debra